Thank you for choosing Northwood University. The Information Technology department would like to welcome both new and returning students to Northwood and wish you all the best during this exciting time. We look forward to delivering easy-to-use, functional, current, secure, and appropriate technologies during your time at Northwood University.

If you are one of the many students who will be bringing a computer to Northwood, please read the following information regarding network access, setup, and support.  There are some very important steps that you can take before arriving on campus that will help make this process run smoothly.

IT Support of Student Personal Computers 

The Northwood University IT Department strives to provide the best customer service possible to faculty, staff and students. Providing any level of support to a student’s personal computer is one of our greatest challenges. In order to clearly define expectations, we have developed the following policy to state the level of support that will be provided to student-owned computers.

The Northwood University Information Technology Department provides complementary, best-effort support in servicing student-owned computers. The following guidelines apply to all service requests: 

• Information Technology no longer supports nor provides network access to computers running Windows 2000, ME, 98 or 95. These operating systems are no longer supported by Microsoft, do not receive security patches, and cannot run the antivirus software Northwood is licensed to provide. If you are still running any of these operating systems, we encourage you to upgrade to Windows XP or Vista prior to arriving on campus. Software or support for operating system upgrades will not be provided by Information Technology.
• The student is responsible for providing any software that may be required to address a given issue. Northwood University reserves the right to deny service in the event that necessary software cannot be provided by the owner of the computer. All software must be legal, owned by the student, and accompanied by a valid license certificate.
• Northwood University will not provide any hardware or software required to resolve a given issue.
• Timeliness of support is directly related to the quantity of qualified support staff available at the time the issue is reported. Typically, IT support staff is not able to process student-owned computer repairs during the first two weeks of any term as our staff is busy assisting students with network connection issues.
• Northwood University reserves the right to deny network access to student-owned computers experiencing spyware and/or virus issues. After a best effort has been made to resolve the issue, the student may be personally responsible for resolving the issue prior to being granted network access.
• Please note that many of today’s viruses and malware cannot be completely cleaned without formatting the hard drive and completely rebuilding the operating system. Please make sure to bring your system restore, operating system, and application software disks with you to campus.
• No guarantees accompany services provided. In the event that a given issue cannot be resolved, the computer will be returned to the owner.

Computer Requirements 

All students who wish to connect their personal computer to the Northwood University network must meet certain security requirements. Upon connecting to the Northwood network, you will be required to install an agent that will check your computer for specific criteria and require you to fix any problems prior to gaining network access. Specifically, we will be making sure you have an
up-to-date antivirus package installed, the latest service pack, all operating system security patches and that you are configured to receive automatic updates for operating systems patches.  
 
Please note that for students living on campus, Northwood University has purchased a license for Symantec Antivirus 10 Corporate Edition and will be requiring the installation of this software prior to gaining full network access.

What you should do before arriving on campus? 

Windows XP and Vista Computers 

1. Install an antispyware tool and scan your computer for problems. Microsoft and several other companies have an antispyware product available at no charge. The following link will take you to Microsoft’s product page which also includes links to Lavasoft’s Adaware and Spybot Search and Destroy.
   
   Microsoft's Product Page.
2. Install the latest Service Pack. Windows XP users should install XP Service Pack 2 which is available here.
    
   Windows Vista users do not need to install a service pack as one is not yet available. 
3. Run Windows Update and install all the latest critical security patches by visiting the following here.
4. Run Windows Update a second time by visiting the link above. There are times when only a certain number of patches can be installed at one time. Please run Windows Update several times until there are no critical items remaining that need to be installed.
5. Configure your PC for automatic updates by visiting the following link and following the instructions provided.
   
   Windows XP Users  
6. Please make sure you are running antivirus software and that it has the latest definition files.  Resident students, please skip to step 7.
   
   Please note:  The following item (step 7) is for resident students only. Only those students who will be living on campus in the dorms or campus apartments should complete step 7.
7. ***Resident Students ONLY*** Before packing your computer to leave for Northwood, please uninstall your antivirus software. Northwood University will be providing and requiring Symantec Corporate Edition version 10 for all resident students. Uninstalling your current antivirus software before leaving for school will help you get through the PC registration process without problems.  

Apple Macintosh
Macs also have to register before being granted access to the network.  In order to best prepare your Mac, please complete the following: 

•  Visit the Apple Website and download the latest security patches. This is especially important for OSX users.
• Make sure you are running an antivirus program with the latest definition files.  

Please take the time to complete the steps above prior to coming to campus. This will be a tremendous help in making your PC registration a smooth process. We thank you for your time and effort in completing these tasks. If we can answer any questions prior to your arrival on campus please give the IT Help Desk a call at 989-837-4421 or toll free 1-877-209-HELP (4357).

Technology Information Updates and Changes 

• All students are provided a Northwood University email address and web-based mailbox.  The mailbox has a 100MB quota.   
• All students are provided storage on a University student file server called an “S Drive”.  This allows the student to store up to 250MB of academic related information on a server that is secured and backed up regularly.   
• Students who bring a game console (Xbox, PS2, etc) to school with them are able to attach to the network and play online. Please note that the IT Department classifies support of game consoles as a lower priority in relation to the support of educational and/or critical business technology.    
• Wireless access is provided throughout all buildings on campus.   
• The sending of attachments via Instant Messenger clients will not be permitted on the student network.  This is due to the high risk of infection that can occur through this mechanism.   
• Home routers and wireless access points are NOT permitted on campus. Students who attempt to use such devices will have their network access removed until the device has been shut down. Students who wish to have additional network drops in their room are permitted to bring hubs or switches that do not provide wireless access or distribute DHCP addresses.  

Password Reset System

Information Technology has implemented a password reset system which allows students to reset their password via the web at any time, from any location. However, in order to use this system you must pre-register and answer three questions. Please visit the password reset system before arriving on campus. This will ensure that during your time at Northwood you will always have the ability to reset your password as the Help Desk is not open 24 hours a day.     

Please register now at https://www.northwood.edu/pwreset  or click the Password Reset link on the http://my.northwood.edu portal.